This study explores the themes of the experience of belonging to a male-only society, namely Freemasonry, by allowing members of the Freemasons to tell their stories of their experience of belonging to Freemasonry. The epistemological framework was that of phenomenology, using a qualitative research design. The study involved a series of in-depth individual interviews. Their stories provide alternative ways of perceiving men’s experience of belonging to a male-only society, focusing on the Freemasons. Several common themes were also identified in the participants’ interviews. The researcher found that the history of the Freemasons plays a large role in the member’s justification for female exclusion. Gender, as well as the members need to belong to a male- only society, gave the researcher some insight into their experience of belonging to a male-only society. The themes that were articulated in the study may be helpful in trying to understand the experiences of belonging to a male-only society. / Dissertation (MA (Clinical Psychology)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted

Background and problem: The perception of luxury fashion has been shaped throughout history with well-known brands’ innovative strategies and designs. Along with its crafts and arts, exclusivity has been one of the main pillars of luxury fashion, creating the perception of luxury fashion products only being available to the ‘elite’; which has been feasible to maintain in an analog society. However, as luxury fashion brands have moved into the digital landscape; using digital channels such as e-commerce, social media, and disruptive technologies such as augmented reality, virtual clothing; distribution channels have opened up, contradicting traditional practises.  It has been found that it is the consumers’ perception that determines luxury brands separation from the ordinary. Raising the question of how consumers may perceive luxury fashion brands when operating in the digital landscape; since the use of digital channels and disruptive technologies contradicts with the characteristics defining luxury fashion, in particular exclusivity.   Purpose: In order to contribute to literature and create new understandings of the digitalisation of the luxury fashion industry; the purpose of this study is to explore how consumers perceive luxury fashion brands’ use of digital channels and disruptive technologies, specifically regarding the perception of exclusivity.                         Method: The study broadly followed an interpretivist research philosophy where qualitative data was collected by conducting eight semi-structured focus groups with Swedish luxury fashion consumers, born between the years of 1992-2000. The empirical findings were analysed through the general analytical approach, and thereafter discussed in relation to the frame of reference.  Conclusion: The findings suggest that consumers perceive that luxury fashion brands’ use of digital channels and disruptive technologies are diluting the perception of exclusivity, as luxury fashion becomes more accessible and visible with an increased attainability.

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The value of fashion week’s physical presence has been questioned in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic, when fashion week became fully digital. Once the pandemic subsided, the digital attributes were retained and combined with the physical space, resulting in a phygital fashion week. This new phenomenon, the contemporary fashion week that combines on-site and online activities, has therefore received little academic research. There is a lack of academic knowledge about how the post-pandemic setting of fashion week affects the physical value. The purpose of this study is to analyze how the post-pandemic setting of fashion week has affected the value of physical presence in regards to marketing communication through the lens of Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW). By conducting a case study of CPHFW, the goal is to bridge the gap by providing new research within the field of fashion marketing. A qualitative research approach was used to provide an in-depth perspective of CPHFW. The chosen data collection techniques were a combination of ethnographic and netnographic methods. The ethnographic methods were conducted on-site, physically at the AW 23 season of CPHFW, while the netnographic methods analyzed activities online, thus communication through social media platforms as well as press coverage. The results of this study indicate that there is a strong interdependence between the digital and physical fashion week, where the digital do not have an obvious position of power because it is dependent on the physical presence. Fashion week has evolved into a phenomenon conducted physically, with the aim of reaching a digital audience through the creation of spectacular on-site moments being shared online. This points to a complex power relationship between the two. Therefore, the value of physical presence remains strong in a post-pandemic setting of fashion week in regards to marketing communication. In terms of Copenhagen, the emerging fashion capital, the translation of the physical presence to the digital realm becomes even more important as it promotes its fashion week to a global audience. It enables CPHFW to communicate elements of differentiation digitally, thus strengthening the attractiveness of the physical presence.

This dissertation consists of two essays in which I study the impact of two interdependent consumer behaviors, fairness concerns and exclusivity seeking, on a companys marketing strategies and profits specifically in a context where it tries to expand its clientele with the objective of generating repeat purchases, for example by running deals on daily deal platforms. In the first essay, I examine the impact of customers fairness concerns on the profitability of a company running promotions on daily deal platforms. With the prevalence of social media and the internet, information about such targeted promotions can become available to all consumers including those who did not have access to the platform and paid a full-price. Conducting a laboratory experiment, I demonstrate that knowledge about targeted promotions often leads to post-promotional fairness concerns among these consumers resulting in an increased tendency to switch providers. Incorporating the results of the experiment in a two-period game-theoretic model I analyze the impact of customers post-promotional fairness concerns on the profits of quality differentiated companies who compete by running targeted promotions. I find that the low quality provider always suffers from consumers sensitivity to unfairness. Contrary, I show that the high quality provider can counterintuitively benefit from consumers fairness concerns as long as its quality advantage is not too large. Furthermore, I analyze how profits are impacted when information about the targeted deals leaks to non-targeted customers who would have bought at the regular price. I find that, counterintuitively, competing firms profits increase with leakage. In the second essay of this dissertation, I start with the observation that many platform members are new customers and are uncertain about the quality of the companys product or service until they consume it. In such a context, I examine a high quality sellers optimal signaling strategy in a market where consumers prefer to purchase a scarce product due to desire for exclusivity or to receive a service in a non-crowded environment due to better experience and service delivery. Utilizing a repeat purchase signaling model I show that, consistent with prior literature, the high quality firm signals its quality by making its product scarce as well as charging a high price when consumers desire for exclusivity is high and cost of quality is great. Contrary, I also find conditions under which the high quality firm counterintuitively makes its product widely available and prices it low to signal its quality. The model may in part explain how high quality sellers market their products or services on daily deal websites.

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Le commerce électronique a suscité une véritable révolution commerciale. En raison de sa nature dématérialisée et transfrontière, il a fait naître de nouvelles interrogations pour le juriste autour l'impact de ce type particulier de commerce sur les angles de la vie économique. Un de ces angles importants est le réseau de distribution qui organise une répartition géographique de la clientèle dans la mesure où le distributeur agréé bénéficie d'un monopole de commercialisation sur un territoire déterminé. Ainsi, la commercialisation en ligne peut constituer un frein puissant à l'exclusivité territoriale car elle constitue, par sa nature même, une distribution "sans ancrage". C'est la raison pour laquelle nous avons opté pour analyser l'impact de la commercialisation en ligne sur l'exclusivité territoriale en traitant les moyens suggérés pour contrôler celle-là afin de préserver les droits conférés par cette exclusivité territoriale. Nous étudierons dans une première partie l'impact de la commercialisation en ligne sur le respect de l'exclusivité territoriale par les parties de contrat de distribution exclusive. À un autre stade, on présentera dans une seconde partie une étude analytique de la situation juridique de tiers à l'égard de notre problématique, en distinguant entre la situation juridique des autres distributeurs agrées dans le même réseau d'une part, et la situation juridique des revendeurs parallèle sur l'Internet d'autre part. / The E-commerce has caused a true commercial revolution. Due to its dematerialized and cross-border nature, it raises new interrogations in front of the lawyers about the impact of this particular type of commerce on the angles of the economic life. One of these important angles is the distribution network which divides the client on a geographical basis to the extent that the approved distributor has a monopoly of distributing the contracted products within a fixed territory. Thus, E-commerce may constitute a powerful barrier to the territorial exclusivity because it constitutes, by its very nature, a distribution “without boundaries”. This is why we went towards analyzing the impact of online sales on the territorial exclusivity. While treating this subject we will explore the means suggested to control the online sales in order to preserve the rights conferred by the territorial exclusivity. We will study in the first part the impact of online sales on the respect of the territorial exclusivity by the parties of exclusive distribution contract. At another stage, we will present in the second part an analytical study of the legal situation of third parties with regard to our subject, while distinguishing between the legal situation of the other distributors members in the same network on one hand, and the legal situation of the parties involved in online parallel sales on the other hand.

Diploma work "The exclusivity of God's revelation according to the Bible and the relationship to other world religions namely Islam and Buddhism" is about comparison between the Biblical revelation and the basic faith statements of others religions particularly Islam and Buddhism. The work also tries to answer the question if the Bible expresses the exclusivity by itself and in which area the exclusivity is the most significant for the life of believers. The aim of this work is also to look for spiritual principles that could be common with other religions as well as the principles that lead to disconnection between these religions. In the end, the work is concerning the possible ways of inter religion discussion in the context of world religion systems.

A noção de serviço público, desde sua incorporação ao direito brasileiro, na primeira metade do século XX, sofreu profundas alterações. A atividade privativa do Estado, destinada à satisfação de necessidades coletivas e sujeita a um regime jurídico especial de direito público passa a ser questionada e desafiada por uma lógica de mercado cada vez mais crescente da qual decorre um anseio cada vez maior pela abertura dos mercados e pela eliminação de monopólios e privilégios. O serviço público como atividade exclusivamente estatal tem que ser revisto. Contudo, não tem que ser revisto para sua extinção. Tem que sê-lo para sua adequação, a qual deve ser empreendida em face do atual conteúdo da Constituição Federal de 1988. Na esteira do constitucionalismo da segunda metade do século XX, a carta constitucional brasileira foi farta na criação de direitos aos cidadãos. Nessa óptica, assegurou o direito fundamental da livre iniciativa e instituiu o princípio constitucional da livre concorrência, o que não pode passar despercebido no processo de revisão dos serviços públicos. O acesso de particulares às atividades constituídas como serviços públicos passa a ser cada vez mais constante, sob o pálio dos mais diversos regimes e instrumentos jurídicos. Como resultado, deve se procurar quais os contornos atuais do serviço público, quais os impactos do regime concorrencial sobre sua essência e quais os instrumentos que devem ser manejados pelo direito administrativo para superar os efeitos desses impactos. É esse, com precisão, o objetivo da presente tese. / The concept of public service has been through deep changes since its incorporation in Brazilian law system. The monopolistic activity of the State, aiming at satisfying social necessities and subject to a special public law regime is nowadays questioned and challenged by a rising market oriented logic that gives rise to the desire of a complete market opening and the elimination of monopolies and privileges. The public service must be revisited and reviewed. However, it must not be revisited to be extinguished. It must be revisited to become more accurate and adequate in view of the content of the Federal Constitution of 1988. In accordance with the constitutionalism of the second half of the 20th Century, the Brazilian Constitution created in favor of the citizens a considerable list of fundamental rights. In this perspective, it guaranteed the fundamental right of freedom of profession and created the constitutional principle of the free competition, what must have impacts upon the concept of public service. The accessibility of third private parties to the development of activities of public services is each day more common, under the protection of several legal instruments and legal regimes. As a result, the current configuration of the public service must be investigated, as well as the impacts of the competition thereon and the instruments that must be managed by the administrative law to mitigate the results of such impacts. This investigation is precisely the scope of this dissertation.